The Shattered Pieces Left Behind
by Raven and Writing Desks
Summary: Because fate is cruel and bodies break. For Rivetra Week 2014.
1. Demons

**_Prompt: _**_Demons_

They haunt them.

Every time their eyes are closed, they see them. Every time their eyes are open, they are forced to face them.

Seeping into the cracks in their sanity, the demons shake their mental stability and more often than not, one of them ends up waking in a cold sweat, occasionally yelling.

Tonight, it is Petra's turn.

She swings through the forest, the adrenaline and fear pumping through her veins, propelling her forward as the hammering footsteps of _it _follow behind.

The speed of it is incredible and it is on her in a second. Petra turns and sees the blonde hair of the female titan before ending up face first in the tree trunk. She hears her back break with a sickening _crack_, and coughs up blood. All feeling below her neck is gone and the only things she can do is lean there helplessly against the tree tears running down her cheeks as she wonders whether this is truly the end.

Is this where she dies? All alone on a practice expedition?

"Petra!"

Her eyes snap open and she finds herself lying in bed, the sheets soaked in sweat and Levi hovering over her. She begins sobbing, and he props her up in his arms holding her against him and smoothing her hair down.

"It's alright," he murmurs, "you're here, with me. She is never going to hurt you again."

"I know," Petra gasps out, "but she's already done so much." Her tears begin to flow as Levi carries her to the bathroom. Setting her in the tub, he carefully slips her nightdress over her head and removes her underwear.

Gently, he pours the warmed water over her, dosing her hair and watching as the clear liquid makes trails down her battered body. Angry scars coat her front and back. Her chest and stomach are covered in deep gashes from the bark ripping her skin open and her back still has the imprints from where the fractured pieces of her spine broke through.

Lathering his hands with soap, he begins massaging her scalp, scrubbing out the anxiety and rinsing it down the drain. He rubs his hand down her body, over her breasts, across her scars, between her legs, removing the trauma.

After rinsing her off, she has calmed down quite a bit. He kisses her forehead quickly before lifting her out of the tub and wrapping her in a fluffy towel. He rubs her dry and trails kisses after the damp cloth, even though he knows she cannot feel most of them.

"I don't want any clothes on," she tells him when he begins to move towards the drawer, and he complies, setting her towel wrapped form in the chair by the fireplace before beginning to change the sheets.

"Do you ever regret your choice?" Petra whispers, staring at the dancing flames that seem to mock her with their free movement.

"Which one?" Levi asks as he straightens out the clean, fitted sheet.

"Quitting the Survey Corps, moving to the center, marrying me after-"

"Never," he cuts her off sternly, knowing what she was going to say next. "I will never regret marrying you, Petra."

"But look at us, Levi" she whispers, "You don't deserve to have to take care of me like this. You're prestigious and well revered, any woman-"

"Stop it," Levi interrupts her again. "Petra, I love you. I will want you forever. It doesn't matter whatever hell the cruel deities decide to put us through next." He picks her up and places her on the bed, unwrapping the towel from around her and slipping her naked body between the sheets.

She looks away in shame, hating the way he loves her so much, but loving him all the more for it. "Kiss me," she whispers.

He does, he leans forward, cupping her face because he knows it is the only place she'll be able to feel his hands, and kisses her deeply.

"I love you," she whispers wishing she could lift her arms and touch him back. Hoping that someday she will be able to feel his soft hair between her fingers again, praying that she will be able to pleasure him the way a wife should be able to. Grasping at any hope at all that she will regain sensation below her neck again.

"I love you too," Levi responds, running a hand down her dead arms and legs, thinking that he will take care of her forever, even if there is no hope of recovery.

Seeing her pinned against that tree drowning on her own blood had been the most disturbing scene he has ever witnessed. That is what he sees when he closes his eyes at night. Except sometimes, he is too late and instead of her crying in relief when he lands in the grass next to her, she remains still, her dead eyes staring at the sky.

"Always, Petra," he promises before lying down next to her and holding her limp body in his arms.


	2. Touch

**_Prompt: _**_Touch_

She is in the middle of a dream. It is a good one, one where she can move and make love again. It is a blur of tangled limbs and heat as she gasps out Levi's name, her hands touching him everywhere because she can. Her body responding to his touches _because she can_. She never wants to wake up because that will mean the end of this feeling, something she has not experienced since that fateful day in the forest. However, life has a different plan and she finds herself being pulled from the dream.

Her eyes flutter open as she is awoken by a tingling sensation on her side.

_Wait. _

She turns her neck slightly – an action that takes much concentration and effort – to find Levi's arm slung over her body in the exact place she feels the new sensation.

"L-Levi!" she chokes out, tears flowing down her face.

He jolts up, "What's wrong? Are you okay?" he asks quickly, looking around the room and finally resting on her face.

Concentrating as much as she can, she brings her hand up to cover his own and moves it up and down her skin. She shivers at the feeling of calloused hands brushing over her bare side. After almost a year of recovery, this is the first time she has been able to feel anything below her shoulders.

"I can feel you," Petra says excitedly, "Your hand is warm."

A smile finds its way on Levi's face as he moves his hand all over. "Tell me when you can't feel it anymore," he tells her as he starts by her collarbone and traces one of her many scars down to her navel. He trails it around her stomach and is surprised when a little laugh escapes her.

"That tickles!" she responds, her hips squirming slightly, causing both of their moods to elevate.

Levi pauses for a moment looking Petra in the eye where he sees his own nervousness reflected back to him. It might not be her whole body they both realize, it might just be an anomaly.

Petra nods, urging him to go on, which he does, cautiously. His hand diverts to the right where it rubs over her hipbone before moving downwards over her thigh.

"I still feel it," she exhales her eyes hooding over. Before the accident, her thighs had always been really sensitive to his touch and a mere brush against them often led to other things, it seems that this fact still holds true.

Instead of using his hand, Levi moves his mouth to her knee, placing a soft kiss on it. He brushes her lips down the rest of her leg, pausing to tickle the bottom of her foot with his finger.

She giggles again and carefully begins testing her limbs. She rotates her ankles and wrists, shifts her shoulders and bends her knees, of course, it is all fairly difficult and she feels exhausted after each action, but the high of regaining motion and the elated look on Levi's face, give her the urge to continue.

The only thing she cannot quite do is lift her legs and support her weight, but she does not let this stop her.

"Put me on top," she whispers to Levi, and with a reluctant look, he does as she instructs, pulling her body on top of his. She lets out a little squeal of excitement as she brings her hands up to stroke his hair. She feels the familiar softness and plays with the strands for a while before her arms begin to feel fatigued. She runs them down his chest, tracing the dips and rises of his muscles.

"You should rest," Levi tells her, his own hands tracing a nonstop pattern on any areas of her skin that he can reach.

"I don't want to," Petra says defiantly, shifting her legs so that they intertwine with Levi's. "It's been so long," she breathes out, quickly kissing his chest.

"Petra," Levi bites out between clenched teeth, his voice strained. "I don't know if you're ready for this."

She looks at him sadly, dejected, and Levi feels his heart wrench within his chest. Reaching out, he tucks a stray piece of ginger hair behind her ear and rubs a thumb over her cheek lovingly.

"I want to Petra," he tells her, "I really do, but I don't want to risk anything."

She nods in understanding – her face still pressed securely against his chest – but the somber expression still remains.

Determined to keep the mood light, after all, a bloody miracle just occurred, he rolls to the side and pulls her back against his chest. When she gives his arms a comforting squeeze, he buries his nose in her hair, enjoying the smell of jasmine.

He is about to tell her goodnight, when a thought dawns on him. To test his theory, he barely runs his fingertips over the area directly above her hipbone. She shifts a bit, muttering a "quit it," and Levi knows he is going to enjoy this.

Repeating the action, but a bit more quickly, Petra laughs a full-hearted laugh that reminds him of wind chimes, the first time she has laughed like that since her paralysis.

He continues to torture her tickle spot until she is gasping for breath and calling surrender.

_I've missed touching you, _really _touching you, _he thinks before closing his eyes and thinking of the next day.

**_Note: _**_I'm a firm believer in miracles, and I think these two deserved one, so there. _


End file.
